Making a dramatic exit - the art of the poetic last line.

In our ends can be our beginnings. Our last lines can circle back to the start. They can also take us in new and unexpected directions, or consist of a mysterious image, a reversal, a refrain, an expression imbued with ambiguity. The end line of a poem can be many things.

In this inspiring workshop, you will explore the craft of writing last lines, study fine examples by contemporary and classic poets, and engage in writing exercises that offer different ways to end your poems with a bang - or a captivating whisper…

You will come away with new poems and fresh ways of looking at end lines.


Anna Saunders is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew, The Prohibition of Touch, Eurydice and the Ruined House (all from Indigo Dreams).

Anna is the CEO and founder of Cheltenham Poetry Festival. She has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North, a ‘modern myth maker’ by Paul Stephenson, and ‘a poet of quite remarkable gifts’ by Bernard O’Donoghue.

This event is part of the online programme of Cheltenham Poetry Festival (CPF).